Editorials

[ OUR OPINION ]

City fiddled while
garbage problem grew

THE ISSUE An approval to pile more waste into the Waimanalo Gulch landfill offers only temporary relief to the city's disposal mess.

THE city appears to have dug itself into a hole with its delays in making decisions about waste disposal. Unfortunately, the hole is figurative, otherwise the city would have a place to stash the trash. For now, however, officials are left holding the garbage bag.

Even with the state Department of Health's approval this week of the city's request to raise by 30 feet the 400-foot height level for solid waste disposal at the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, the city's own projections are that by April, the landfill will reach its capacity. It is unlikely that the city will be ready with its application to expand the landfill from its present 86 acres before March, and the Health Department's approval process will take 60 days. This may leave the city with the choice of operating an illegal landfill or not collecting trash for a month or longer. Neither is acceptable.

The problem results from the administration's reluctance to deal with a politically unpopular project. As development has bloomed along the Leeward coast -- primarily in Kapolei and Ko Olina -- residents have become increasingly vocal about their opposition to having a landfill nearby, even though it has been there since 1989.

Although the administration was well aware that the landfill would soon reach capacity, it put off resolution of the problem as Mayor Jeremy Harris was focused on his now-derailed campaign for governor. The administration extended the comment period for its environmental assessment seven times -- more than a year -- while Harris touted his plans for alternative waste disposal projects.

The administration, knowing that sites for more landfills are scarce on the rapidly developing island, should be commended for its forward-looking ideas about getting rid of waste through new methods. However, the plasma arc technology Harris promoted has not looked promising for the volume of wastes Honolulu generates. Efforts to augment the HPOWER plant and a plan to seek private business to convert waste to hydrogen fuel and to building and paving materials have not been realized.

The administration should have been working on two fronts: Expanding the landfill while exploring better ways of waste disposal. As the situation now stands, city officials have few options. They have frustrated the community with unattainable expectations and are left scrambling to fix the landfill mess.

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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.

Don Kendall, Publisher

Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com

Mary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4790; mpoole@starbulletin.com
John Flanagan, Contributing Editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com

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